Remembering John Ntambirweki

A dynamic intellectual of unsurpassed brilliance, great teacher, loving husband and doting dad dies

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | I was going through my Instagram on Thursday morning when I read that Prof. John Ntambirweki is dead. If someone asked me to describe him, I would say that John was John. He was a man in his own league. He was tall, athletic and handsome. This made him stand physically apart from any crowd. John didn’t have to do anything to be noticed. His body structure did it for him. He was also a dynamic intellectual, generous with his ideas. In a debate John stood out of the crowd by the sharpness of his ideas, the confidence he exuded and the humor with which he delivered them.

I was lucky to know John, first as his student and then as his friend. He was my lecturer of international law at Makerere University School of Law. He was one of the best lecturers in whose class I ever sat; from Makerere to the School of Oriental and African Studies to the London School of Economics, to Stanford, Yale and Oxford. In all those universities, the best in the world, where I have been taught by the brightest professors, John stands among the best of them, an intellectual giant.

John was so brilliant he did not use notes to teach us international law. He was a moving encyclopedia on the subject. With his commanding presence and intellectual prowess, John made us proud to be his students, to be at Makerere University and to be Ugandans. He spiced his intellectual discourses with humor and anecdotal stories. He would be teaching a topic and then say: “Let me digress a bit.” There he would illustrate a complex international law situation or principle with an anecdotal story about his times at school, or in Uganda’s mucky politics or some international event.

None of us, his students, wanted to miss any of his lessons, even when we were sick. I remember a time when my late friend Bob Kasango and I were attending a Constituent Assembly debate on the issue of multiparty politics. The debate was as intellectually exciting as it was politically explosive. The giants of multiparty politics were going head-to-head with NRM’s pro “Movement System” advocates. Those were the days when Uganda was riveting with idealism for democracy and liberalism before we descended into corruption and patronage. The two sides were evenly balanced in intellect. But then we had a class with John. How do you make a choice of which to miss? We chose to run back to campus to listen to John.

John taught us with a keenness of a parent or a true teacher. He reached the mind and heart of each one of us in a class of 49. We all felt his touch. I became his admirer and lifelong friend visiting his home and meeting his wife and children. His daughter Barbara and I became friends me calling her my daughter. Recently I was in London and met his other daughter, Brenda, at the home Alan Kasujja of BBC fame. We connected so easily, me calling her my daughter. That is how much I felt connected to his family. Wherever and whenever I met them, we connected.

I last met John last year when he invited me to give a commencement speech at the Pentecostal University in Fort Portal. It is a university he founded. He was not physically the same man, looking frail and tired. Apparently, he had suffered a stroke some few years earlier. I was a bit heartbroken to see him in this state, especially given my memory of his athletic structure and imposing personality. But when we began talking, he was as intellectually astute as ever. His humor was still as vibrant as was the warmth of his personality. I was thus relieved to enjoy that aspect of him.

Today I join his family, in-laws and friends to celebrate the life of this giant of a man: an intellectual of unsurpassed brilliance, a friend whose heart oozed with love for everyone he was near – family, students and friends; a loving husband, doting father and most importantly, a great human being. John loved living and enjoyed life like a gentleman – without fear and without excess. No matter how hard and cruel or unfair the world was to John, he loved it back. He embraced life without any reservations, regret or remorse. In my experience with him, I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone personally unless it was to criticize their ideas. John has died a happy man because it was too good (and proud) to hate anyone.

So we celebrate the life of this giant, a victor in 100 intellectual battles, a towering figure of a teacher, a dynamic intellectual, a loving father, a friend of all and enemy of none. I never told John how I felt about him. But I am sure he felt it in our interactions. But let me use this eulogy to communicate to him directly.

John, you gave me (and all those you raised and taught) the best education we could ever pray for because you were a great intellectual and excellent teacher. For that reason, you have not died. Your ideas will continue to live through the minds of those of us that you taught and those whom we are teaching. Your memory also remains strong and vivid in my life and I am sure in the hearts and minds of many others you touched like me. We will continue your work of intellectual extravagance.

The parental love you extended to me personally and to so many other students you taught remains alive and vivid in our memories. I promise to extend it to many others who look up to me the way I looked up to you. Therefore, you will continue to live through our actions we as your disciples and those who will come after us. However, I am keenly aware that I can never equal the genius of your intellect, the kindness of your heart, the largeness of your mind and the amplitude of your comprehension.

But I can always strive to be the best example of what you were to me and taught me to be; both by your words and example. Even when I fail to live up to that standard, I am only reminded that I was only your student. A shoulder can never grow to be taller than the head. Rest thee well my great teacher and friend.

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amwenda@independent.co.ug